Re: your inquiry about the recent e-mail the ILCA Board sent out to its membership. Here's the scoop, from an impeccable source, since I am now the Secretary of the Board of ILCA: (1) One vendor had instructional offerings at the Exhibit Hall, offered during the same time period as ILCA's own conference sessions. (2) A second vendor had a booth, but it advertises a certificate program that doesn't meet the ILCA standard for recognition. ILCA recognizes certification "only through an agency that meets the standards for the National Organization for Competency Assurance ... certifies through an international criterion-referenced examination, and has disciplinary measures to remove an incompetent or unethical practitioner or a practitioner working outside their clearly defined scopes of practice." [ILCA Education Standard 1 -- find it on the website, www.ilca.org, clicking "Education"]. (3) Meanwhile, a third vendor had been denied booth space because it, too, offers a certificate program. And so we found ourselves in Chicago, with our own guidelines being misapplied in our own Exhibit Hall. Hence the letter to our membership. which I reproduce below, as an FYI: "During the July 2005 ILCA Conference in Chicago, the Board of Directors was dismayed to learn of unintentional misapplication of the ILCA Advertising Policy at our Exhibit Hall, which caused confusion for some members and exhibitors: one exhibitor offered educational segments; one received booth space while another was turned away. "We are very sorry this happened. "The Board took immediate steps to redress the errors without marring the flow and excitement of our 20th anniversary celebration and excellent educational program. It became clear to the Board that it was administratively difficult to police and enforce the existing advertising policy. It voted, at a meeting quickly called during the 2005 conference, to immediately separate the ILCA Education Standards from the ILCA Advertising Policy. "To prevent future misapplications, the Board will be reviewing and clarifying several documents: the required disclosure and conflict-of-interest statements (for exhibitors, speakers and committee volunteers), the conference syllabus, the conference brochure and the invitation to conference exhibitors. "The Board wants to assure the membership that the ILCA Advertising Policy still requires vigorous compliance with the WHO Code: there will be no advertising, funding or sponsorship accepted from entities that produce or market human milk substitutes, breastmilk substitutes for babies under six months, free-standing feeding bottles, pacifiers (dummies) and or bottle nipples/teats. And continued unabated is our support for the ILCA Education Standards. "Sincerely, "ILCA Board of Directors" Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC Wyndmoor, PA, USA *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html